


Once More With Paradox

by sleepismyfriend



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-29
Updated: 2010-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-10 21:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepismyfriend/pseuds/sleepismyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are not really any alien dangers to keep them from facing the simple truths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once More With Paradox

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Big Finish's Short Trips Competition 2010.

They had been walking through the leafy bush for the better part of an hour, Harry leading the way with the Doctor as Tegan and Sarah hung back. Every so often, the world around them would shake, and they would have to stop until the tremors subsided.

"Feels unreal." Tegan held onto the strap of the canteen jangling from her hip. "You and him here."

"I know." Sarah pushed her hair back, wishing not for the first time that she had thought to bring something to hold it up. She made sure to watch her step as they walked, the odd twist of roots and limbs peering up from the ground. "After all this time, I certainly hadn't expected to be caught up in it again. And it doesn't change, does it?"

"Not in my experience. That's generally how it goes along."

"You would think we would have learned our lesson on Gallifrey, right? Stranded in the Death Zone with multiple copies of him?" Sarah motioned ahead to the Doctor.

"Not as if we had a choice, really. Better here than there. At least this planet had some sort of civilization to fall back on. What did the Death Zone have? Immortal fools and muck weather. Harry and I did the best we could trapped here, under the circumstances." Tegan could hear Harry's voice ahead of her, a low timber that made her smile. "Thought the Doctor would have come right back once he figured out what happened."

Sarah bowed her head.

"Your son, he's very cute. Looks like both of you."

"Takes more after him. Most days, anyway. Hopefully, Daal will not have to watch him for too long," Tegan said, seeing Harry climbing over the rather large tree that had fallen in their path, the Doctor not far behind him.

"I'm sorry, Harry, old boy. Really, I am," the Doctor said. Harry made his way over without too much problem, lending the Doctor a hand as he pulled him over.

"For what?"

"Leaving you and Tegan here. My fourth self never really was that considerate."

"I'm pretty sure your fourth self didn't know which end was up, Doctor." Harry dusted his hands off as the Doctor straightened. "I found him, er, you rather, nearly incapacitated."

"A rather careless move, I must admit."

"I've had a lot of time to think about that. Make some conclusions, come to peace with it." Harry took a look back to Tegan, who caught his glance and smiled.

"I wish nothing but the best for you and her. Really, I do." The Doctor shoved his hands into his striped pockets.

"Thank you. I suppose what happened is what happens when anyone gets involved with you. You get sucked in, and then struggle to find your way out." Harry's smirk turned into a grin.

"That's the spirit."

"A little help?" Tegan said as she pulled the canteen strap over her head and handed it to Harry, who placed it on the ground. She climbed up halfway before Harry steadied her by placing his hands on her hips.

The Doctor was amused.

"A little Tarzan and Jane, don't you think?"

"Be a gentleman and help Sarah Jane. You really haven't changed, have you?" Tegan picked up the canteen and took a sip as the Doctor helped Sarah Jane in a similar manner that Harry had helped Tegan.

"Thank you," Sarah Jane said, not looking up to see his eyes.

"You're welcome," the Doctor said.

"You apologized yet?" Harry raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, his eyes darting over to Sarah. His arm was around Tegan as she handed Sarah the canteen for a drink.

"Apologize? For what?"

"As obtuse as the other one. Come on. We've got at least another fifteen minutes to go before we reach the falls," Harry said, grabbing Tegan as the trees began to shake.

The planet's pink-orange sky remained a constant as everything shuddered back and forth around them, branches threatening to fall as the group crouched down low to the ground. After a minute and a half, Tegan was the first to stand, surveying the area around her.

"These tremors weren't here before today, Doctor. Five years we've been here, not a single one. Until today, when you show up," she said.

"I have a theory about that," the Doctor said, helping Sarah to her feet. "Not a complete one, but an idea, at least. I do know one thing. If we don't stop the tremors, this planet will be torn apart. Today."

"We'd better get going then. I want to see my son." Tegan's eyes narrowed. "Is that understood? He will not be torn apart."

The Doctor nodded, and the group continued their trek.

"How long have we been gone?" Tegan looked back over her shoulder at Sarah, who had said nothing as she walked alongside the Doctor.

"Hm? Oh, about two years, I think? That's as far back as I can trace it anyway. I was pretty used to Harry disappearing from time to time for random reasons. But then, the months grew longer and longer. Tried every connection I could think of. The Brigadier-"

"May 1984," the Doctor said to himself. Harry faced him, and Tegan thought another tremor was about to hit because he had stopped. "That's when my fourth self, the one that you and Sarah Jane knew, appeared on the street."

"That's right. I had taken Sarah Jane out for dinner on her birthday," Harry said. "Old ritual habit after you ditched her."

"Harry-" Sarah said.

"I had been traveling for a while alone, and I needed someone." The Doctor's eyes darkened, darting over to Sarah and back again. "So, while in the vortex, I set the coordinates for Earth, preferably trying to land somewhere close to Sarah's timeline, and had pulled the lever when something hit the TARDIS."

"But the TARDIS was perfectly fine. Standing upright on the corner, like you had landed her perfectly. She helped me carry you in there." Harry took a step forward, motioning back. "Not easily, I might add. It was once we were inside that everything went to hell."

"You know the rest of the story, right?" The Doctor said, and both nodded. "The TARDIS activated her emergency controls. We were diverted here, only I can't recall any of it. I woke up on Earth with a massive headache and no recollection of anything other than the two of you trying to help me."

Tegan and Harry nodded along with what the Doctor was saying. " So, this is me, trying to help the two of you. Right the wrongs I've caused, and the like."

None of them had seen Sarah slip off and make some distance on her own. She had walked away from them, her shoulders curving inward, knowing that she just needed a moment on this beautiful alien world to compose herself.

_He had tried, Sarah Jane,_ her mind kept repeating. As she continued walking, the bush parted to the falls, the water streaming down from high up on the cliff.

That's when she saw the TARDIS standing on the edge of coast. He was lying on the ground, the teeth and curls version of him, anyway. Sarah's feet picked up and she found herself running towards him.

"Doctor," she said, out of breath, touching him for confirmation that he was indeed in front of her. Her hand immediately went for his curls. "Oh, please be alive. You have to be alive."

"Sarah." She heard the others calling out for her as they caught up.

"Bloody hell," Harry said. "But, how?"

"Of course." The Doctor threw his hands up in the air. "Of course this makes sense. Perfect sense. Why didn't I see this before? Why didn't I consider the variables of time and space?"

"I think he's really lost it this time." Tegan had joined Sarah at the other Doctor's side.

"Doctor? What is the meaning of this?" Harry's hands sat on his hips. The Doctor laughed.

"The meaning? The meaning, dear Harry. It has taken me this long to figure out what we're here for. Quite a quandary, indeed. This is the first day you arrived on this planet, five years ago."

"That's impossible," Tegan said.

"Well, I'm afraid it is. These are the moments after the Ocjab took you and Harry away from the TARDIS. Do you know why these tremors are taking place, hmm? It's because there are two TARDIS's on this planet. Two. That's why you couldn't remember there being tremors before, because they had only happened once before, and it was on the day you were here and you can't recall the details. And, because this planet is so sensitive to the fabric of time and space, the TARDIS's are acting like two ends of an electromagnetic pole that can switch the two lines back and forth. I landed here because I would land here someday."

Tegan huffed before standing.

"Well done, Doctor. Well done, indeed. So, now that we have this you, what are we supposed to do with you?"

"Simple. Help me up, and get me back into my TARDIS. I'll program her for Earth, just like I did for me when I was him, and we'll send him back."

"But what about us?" Harry said.

"Well, we know what happens to you, Harry. You and Tegan settle here with the locals, fall in love, have that adorable son of yours. And you wait for me to come so we can be here, now."

The Doctor smiled.

"Ugh, I think my head is starting to hurt with all this time-hopping." Tegan rubbed her forehead, one hand on her hip.

"You will never be able to regain those five years," Sarah said, her voice a rather surprising one amongst theirs. She was reluctant to let go of the unconscious Doctor, and Tegan and Harry parted and turned their attention to her. "And why would you want to? Because if you love each other the way that you say you do? Then it should never be a choice. This is where you fell in love. These are the people you are now. You made a choice to help, and these are your consequences."

"My Sarah Jane," the Doctor said. "The voice of reason."

Sarah didn't look at him.

"Just help me get him into the TARDIS," Sarah said, keeping her head low. "Before anyone else gets hurt."

Harry bent down, and with Tegan and Sarah's help, they managed to get him upright as they carried him to the TARDIS. The Doctor followed behind them, contemplating their actions.

Harry headed straight for the door on the other side of the console room, finding the nearest room in which he could put the Doctor down. Tegan followed, leaving the Doctor alone with Sarah.

"Let's get started. Initializing autopilot sequence." The Doctor pulled a series of switches. Sarah didn't say anything, just stood with her arms crossed and looked around at the room around her.

"Tegan was right about Gallifrey. Immortal fools and muck weather," Sarah said. The Doctor attempted to focus on his task, but not before smirking to himself.

The Doctor grumbled.

"All of time and space. So glad I get to have this conversation with you twice."

"What?"

"One day, I'll sit with you and we'll discuss why I left you in Aberdeen. But not today, and not with this face." He looked up only one to see her raised eyebrow. He flipped another three switches and moved around the console to enter in an eight digit numerical sequence.

"And why not?'

"Because it's not time yet," the Doctor said, locking eyes with her for the first time in this whole experience. A moment later, Sarah fell to the floor. As he finished his computations, Tegan and Harry walked back in.

"Really, Doctor?" Harry bent down and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"She's fine, Harry. Just sleeping. I pushed her memories to the back burner, and don't ask, because I can't really tell you." He pushed the final button, and then moved around to pick Sarah up. She was lighter than he remembered. "We have to go, so let's go."

They made it outside just in time to turn around, Tegan, Harry, and the Doctor carrying Sarah to see the TARDIS demateralize. "And that my friends is how we fix paradoxes. Not that I won't figure that out again. I am a genius after all."

"I want to go home, Harry," Tegan said with Harry's arm across her shoulders. He kissed her hair.

"I'm sure he's fine."

"Good, because I don't want to ever leave my child like that ever again. After that, we're going to make sure that this prat takes Sarah Jane home properly. What? I'm nosy! He didn't drop her in Croydon the first time. Aberdeen, indeed! If she's not going to remember any of this, the least she's going to do is wake up warm and cosy in her own bed. If I have to pilot the TARDIS myself, I will."

The Doctor smirked.

"That's a pretty brave heart, Tegan," Harry said.

"So, it is. Come along, Doctor." Harry and Tegan turned to head back as the Doctor stood still with Sarah in his arms.

"There aren't any jelly babies now, Sarah Jane, but you're still my best friend."

He turned, following Harry and Tegan back the way they came.


End file.
